The stock market had just opened. midfr0st stretched his legs and cracked his knuckles. He began by changing the passwords for Meriabeck’s CMS system, unless they knew about the sql injection they wouldn’t be able to edit their website. They could probably still access it through ftp if they could locate their account details, the other option they had was phoning the web hotel and have them shut down the site. midfr0st’s gut told him that even if they had their ftp credentials they would be unable to change the site without access to the CMS system.

midfr0st: Are you ready?
c@rri3r: sure man!
midfr0st: excellent, take it down
c@rri3r: now?
midfr0st: now

midfr0st wiped all the mobile phones he could see in the Mobile Administration Web Tool, for at least a few hours Meriabeck would have trouble receiving any telephone calls.

Looks great, midfr0st thought as he saw his piece on Meriabecks website. He sent out a press release from Kathy R. Delgado, the PR woman at Meriabeck. midfr0st considered sending out an informative email to all the employees to add to the confusion, but decided it would be better if the company didn’t know what was happening. Before he left Meriabeck to its fate he shut down the network and killed the firewall.

“What’s so funny?” the waitress asked with a smile on her face. midfr0st just looked at her, not sure what to do, he held up his empty cup.
“Not enough coffee, I get all strange and giggly if I’m below my quota.”
She laughed and poured him another cup, when she went away she smiled almost sadly at him.

After finishing his coffee midfr0st walked home. Having some time to kill he logged into bloglines to read up on his feeds. Just after reading a few entries his phone began to buzz.

Text message received: “Meriabeck Stock Rising”

midfr0st logged into his bank and sold all the stocks he had at a 18% gain, he heard later that tr0y had sold the stocks he bought at a 24% profit.

A few hours later the stock exchange closed the trading for Meriabeck when they had dropped 45% for the day.

What comes up must go down, midfr0st thought, inhaling smoke from his newly lit cigarette.